Then there is the food: Yorkshire has so many wonderful small-scale farmers who produce amazing food with passion and expertise. We have looked all over the region to bring you some of the tastiest produce the country has to offer for the minimum possible food miles – you can see more details on the ‘breakfast’ page.

We grow our own cut flowers which gives us access to varieties that don’t tend to get grown commercially and means that the carbon footprint is radically reduced over the majority of shop-bought flowers which are imported from overseas.

We try to support the local economy using the many unique local shops and independent businesses where we can and rarely a week passes when we don't find 'the thing we needed' in the York's wonderful family run Barnitts department store!

Eco-friendly

We try to be aware of our impact on the environment and reduce it where possible, while making sure that your experience doesn’t suffer!
For instance, at breakfast we try to reduce waste by focusing on quality over quantity and keeping things simple.

We mend and reuse things in-house where we can, reusing scrap paper and packaging materials in the office and when we have to throw things away, our waste removal company operates on a 0% to land fill basis.

We hate throwing away plastic bottles so you will find supplies of filtered, chilled water and fresh milk provided for your use in glass bottles that we reuse.

We supply generous amounts of luxury organic toiletries in refillable bottles, made by our exclusive supplier Sedbergh Soaps, a wonderful farm diversification project up in the Yorkshire Dales.

We try to conserve energy where we can. For example, we have moved over to energy efficient induction hobs in the kitchen and our back of house areas use sensor switches to reduce electricity use when not needed. We are using low energy LED bulbs throughout the building and have increased the building's levels of insulation. Even minor things like using thick lined curtains at the windows helps keep energy in.

We also try to do our bit to bring a little nature into the city. The planting in our little garden has been planned with bee-friendliness in mind and it is visited by various birds throughout the year – we are proud to have spotted the Peregrine Falcons who nest at the Minster (and have their own twitteraccount!) in the garden on several occasions. The choice of gravel over hard paving allows rainwater to soak away slowly and the plants help combat air pollution.

People-friendly

We try to look after our team too, supporting their learning and development and offering full-time jobs on secure contracts – no zero hours here! More details on our current team can be found on ‘the team’ page.